Coffee-Marinated Flank Fajitas with Pico De Gallo

Author Notes

The fajita is a relatively new addition (1930s) to the Tex-Mex repetoire of deliciousness. It started as a griddled skirt steak but nowadays we make them out of just about anything, seasoned and garnished and wrapped in a tortilla. Extremely flexible and super-delicious, what's not to love? In this version, I used flank steak and my own chili powder ground from equal parts guajillo, ancho, and cascabel chilis. If you don't have access to bins of various dried chilis like we do here in the great state of Texas, you can use ancho powder, which is readily available in most areas. Just make sure you are using straight ground chilis and not the seasoned chili powder. Pico de gallo adds a fresh brightness to balance the rich coffee-marinated meat... —aargersi

Test Kitchen Notes

Coffee is working behind the scenes here—a silent but powerful player, tenderizing a typically tough meat to almost that of a filet (but with all the flavor and character of flank steak!). Either my butcher blessed me with quality raw materials, or the coffee enzymes truly do have transformative powers. For this test I had 1.95-pound flank steak, which marinated for 3 hours (turning over in the marinade at the halfway point). I used ancho powder, the recommend substitute for aargersi's own chili powder blend. I cut the steak in half and seared each piece in a 10-inch cast iron skillet with 2 tablespoons canola oil, 3 minutes on each side. The thinner half was a mid-rare, the thicker half-rare/mid-rare. The cooked meat had no hint of coffee flavor, just subtly sweet and spiced. The accompanying pico was simple, fresh and bright. My parents, native Texans, gave it two thumbs up and were eager to try it out on the grill back home. —Allison Bruns Buford